By their very nature, convention centers are difficult architectural critters.
In the worst cases, they look like beached whales. They can be huge, stark,
impenetrable edifices that stand out uncomfortably from everything around them.
The newly expanded, 2.2 million-square-foot Colorado Convention Center avoids
most of the pitfalls of these vast structures with a functional design that
sports an undeniably artful flair.
With projecting angles, playful undulations and sweeping windows, the building
sports an extroverted exterior that engages both distant mountain vistas and
adjacent city life, while its many utilitarian features handle the hundreds of
potential activities within.If this new convention center does not set any trends, it certainly keeps up
with them.
It combines Western practicality with a design artful enough to
ensure that this facility rises above the ordinary.
To give shape to the building, the city turned to a local firm that has become
something of a go-to company for Denver-area public buildings–Fentress Bradburn
Architects.
Since the firm’s formation in 1980, it has undertaken varied buildings around
the world, including, recently, the National Museum of the Marine Corps in
Quantico, Va., demonstrating its ability along the way to pull off large-scale
projects.In the Denver area, the firm has overseen the design of the Jefferson County
Government Center, Invesco Field and the Denver International Airport passenger
terminal, with its signature, white-peaked fabric roof that mimics mountains.
Indeed, the lead designers who spearheaded this project–Curtis Fentress,
principal in charge of design, and Michael Olin Winters, project designer–also
headed the DIA terminal design team and have collaborated on other major
buildings.
Much of the success of this new convention center was determined by two key
decisions from the past, beginning with the city’s prescient surprise pick in
1987 of the current site next to then-existing Currigan Hall for the first phase
of the convention center.
Although 14th Street, which runs along the facility’s eastern facade, seemed off
the beaten track then, it was two blocks from the all-important 16th Street Mall
and within walking distance of most of the city’s major downtown attractions.
Thus, unlike some convention centers, which are a mile or more from tourist and
entertainment districts and sometimes situated in undesirable neighborhoods,
this conveniently sited building is very much a part of the downtown scene.
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| Small lights accent the wavy stainless-steel ceiling panels–echoing the exterior curves–in the Grand Concourse.
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In fact, this expansion is helping to spark a new focus on the western side of
downtown, with 14th Street establishing itself as one of the most vibrant
centers of new development. At the Arapahoe Street intersection, for example, a
recently announced 50-story skyscraper is set to house a Four Seasons Hotel and
the city’s most expensive condos ever.
The second key decision was incorporating the first phase of the convention
center into the second. In part because it designed the older building, Fentress
Bradburn was able to blend the two sections so seamlessly that only the most
observant repeat visitors will realize there was a pre-existing building.
The architects did this using simple techniques, such as extending new carpeting
through the entirety of the building and carefully positioning elements of the
expansion, such as the ballrooms, so they line up with those in the first phase.
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This fusion contrasts sharply with convention-center additions in some cities,
which have been built on nearby sites and joined by bridges and walkways. The
results are often awkward and ungainly complexes that do not serve either
exhibitors or visitors well.
Perhaps the most successful aspect of this newly expanded convention center is
how well it connects to the rest of the city, both from the point of view of
conventioneers and visitors on the inside and people who pass by on foot or in
cars.
Rather than being completely closed off from the outside in this mammoth
building, a 101-foot-tall atrium on the eastern side thrusts visitors into the
hustle and bustle of downtown and a 119-foot-tall glass wall on the western side
offers panoramic views of the Front Range.
A 1,100-foot-long central corridor links these two sides of the building, with
the abundance of natural light they provide animating this vast walkway and
serving as a natural lure drawing visitors from one end to the other.
In a break from convention, Fentress Bradburn has even added a few windows to
the 584,000-square-foot exhibition hall, giving visitors at least a taste of the
state’s abundant sunshine and helping avoid the closed-in feeling that such
huge, isolated spaces often have.Rather than forbidding, fortress-like walls on the outside, Fentress Bradburn
has tried to design facades that reach out to the rest of the city and, in many
ways, help animate it.The most successful is arguably the western facade along Speer Boulevard, which
gradually rises from south to the north at a 5-degree angle like a gentle ramp.
It culminates in a prow-like point that can be seen from a considerable
distance, providing a kind of exclamation point to the western edge of the
city’s skyline.
Although this flourish largely works, it is easy to wish it were more than just
an adornment and were integrated into the architectural essence of the building,
much as similar jutting angles are in Daniel Libeskind’s addition to the Denver
Art Museum.
The eastern facade along 14th Street is similar in spirit, but it is more
symmetrical with nearly identical twin wing-like caps angled upward from the
center. But this side is not only less graceful, it even seems a little
bombastic, a feeling emphasized by the jutting, blocky entrance canopy.
The facades on Champa and Welton streets have been covered in strips of
undulating, perforated and corrugated stainless steel sheathing. These playful
curves nicely contrast with the angled and rectilinear lines of the rest of the
building.Also contributing to the structure’s sense of connectedness is Stout Street and
an accompanying light-rail line that curves underneath the northern portion of
the building, and a parking lot that links to the Denver Performing Arts
Complex.
Other notable aspects of this building include some of its interior detailing,
such as wood inlay on the ballroom walls in a semi-abstract pattern suggesting
mountains and ceiling adornments that echo the exterior stainless-steel
sheathing.
But particularly in a building of this kind, which serves so many different
uses, function is every bit as important as appearance. And in that regard, the
architects have worked hard to try to make this building function well, with an
amazing array of docks and service areas hidden from public view.They traveled to 20 other convention centers that might be potential competitors
and met with an array of convention planners to try to learn what works and what
doesn’t, and their findings are incorporated into what they hope will be the
efficient workings of this structure.
The new convention center does not transform the face of American architecture,
but it goes well beyond the commonplace, striking a balance between
functionality and aesthetics.
The building and the $2.4 million in mostly top-quality art that adorns it
clearly signal that Denver is a city that wants to be taken seriously on the
national level.
Fine arts critic Kyle MacMillan
can be reached at 303-820-1675
or kmacmillan@denverpost.com.
